A Method for Integrating Process Description and User Interface Use during Design of RIA Applications

Abstract

During design of rich internet applications (RIA) it is important to integrate in one model the description of both the interactions of the user with the system, and the processes (considering data flow, control flow, and possibly, detailed autonomous task descriptions), for having a very rich set of relations between modeling elements that can be inspected. Such integrated models consider both UI aspects, and user interaction aspects; therefore, their construction needs the participation of both graphic designers and analysts, leading possibly to communication problems, less productivity, and perhaps to introduce errors. To treat these problems, we propose a method consisting of: process requirements description, traces definition from requirement elements into either UI elements (UIE)/events on UIEs (provided by UI designers), or to autonomous actions design (provided by analysts); in addition, we present a transformation from the deliverables of this process onto an integrated model.